Higgins story a case for startup common

Like many Worcester residents, I have distant childhood memories of visiting the Higgins Armory Museum. So do my children. But the fate of this unique museum might have been different if Worcester’s startup common were as vital now as it was when Mr. Higgins’ company, Worcester Pressed Steel, was thriving.

As the Telegram & Gazette reported March 8, the Higgins will close Dec. 31, sending its 2,000-piece collection to the Worcester Art Museum. And that’s because the Higgins’ board was unable to find a way to slash its operating deficit of $300,000 to $400,000 a year through cutting expenses, increasing revenue (it has 60,000 annual visitors), or boosting its endowment from $2.9 million to the $15 million needed to keep it afloat.

Mark Twain famously wrote that history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. One thing that keeps happening is that when an entrepreneur strikes it rich, he wants to pursue expensive hobbies and show them off to the world. For example, software mogul Larry Ellison of Oracle likes to display his wealth by buying an island or racing America’s Cup Yachts.

In the 1920s, when John Woodman Higgins was growing Worcester Pressed Steel, he displayed his wealth by collecting armor. Mr. Higgins was the kind of entrepreneur Worcester needs now. He loved working with metal, graduated from WPI, and, after a stint at Plunger Elevator Co., Mr. Higgins and his father, Milton, bought Worcester Ferrule and Manufacturing Co. and restructured it in 1905 into Worcester Pressed Steel.

Mr. Higgins was like many in his era who liked stories about knights and chivalry. When his father died in 1912, Mr. Higgins became president and treasurer of Worcester Pressed Steel. Its success gave him the means to travel to Europe where he indulged his passion for armor — buying “a group of armors” from art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen.

Over the decade that followed, Mr. Higgins bought more armor, and in 1928, he spent $300,000 on the Barber Street armory next to his factory, endowing it with a mere $17,000, which was pretty small, even in 1931 dollars.

Mr. Higgins handed over the reins of Worcester Pressed Steel to his oldest son in 1950 and died in 1961. Mr. Higgins’ son was unable to keep Worcester Pressed Steel going and filed for bankruptcy in 1975. In 1978, the museum changed from a private foundation to a publicly supported charity.

The move to the Worcester Art Museum will be abetted by the proceeds of a March 20 auction in London that raised $2 million, but Mr. Higgins’ granddaughter, Clarinda Higgins, is not a fan of closing the Higgins.

This brings to mind the idea of a startup common. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Worcester had a vital startup common that included companies such as Norton Co. and Wyman-Gordon. WPI and other local universities provided ample supplies of talent to help these companies grow. Back then, the success of these startup companies may well have created a strong enough community feeling to raise enough capital to keep the Higgins alive. It’s unclear whether Worcester has enough of that feeling now.

Worcester needs to develop values that encourage people — as they do in Silicon Valley’s startup common — to give without expectation of immediate return. In Silicon Valley, a robust collection of resources — including pillar companies such as Google and Facebook, universities, human capital, capital providers, mentors and values — all work together to produce robust startup activity.

A good start would be for more WPI graduates to start their companies in Worcester, as Mr. Higgins did more than 100 years ago.

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